Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: LA Projects to Have the Highest Team WAR in Baseball Right Now

The current 2022 Dodgers roster is still an unfinished product. Check that, every MLB team’s 2022 roster is an unfinished product due to the MLB lockout. That being said, one projection system still ranks the Dodgers as the best team in baseball.

Even after losing Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Kenley Jansen, and Corey Seager, to name a few.



FanGraphs “ZiPS” projections tool, developed by Dan Szymborski, put the Dodgers above the rest of the field in terms of total projected Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for the upcoming season.

ZiPS Top 5 Teams by Total WAR

  • Dodgers 49.4
  • Yankees 48.3
  • Mets 47.8
  • Astros 45.3
  • White Sox 45.3

Before you light up the comments, note that this a projection. Not a guarantee of a 2022 Dodgers championship. There’s a many, many projection models out there.

However, ZiPS is known as one of the more accurate projections models in baseball.

To keep it brief, ZiPS is a well-educated, and well-“mathed”, approximation of a given player’s “baseline expectation” spiced with an estimation of the player’s future performance to generate WAR. It is not a tool for predicting playing time.

Full disclosure, ZiPS is derived from a treasure trove of math and modeling that this writer isn’t smart enough to completely comprehend.

The Dodgers roster as it stands is not bulletproof. There are significant questions surrounding the back end of the rotation. Especially since LA did not re-sign Clayton Kershaw prior to the lockout. Moreover, Kershaw’s availability for 2022 is a question inside the question.

Max Muncy’s recovery from his frightening elbow injury is another cause for concern. Muncy is not a shoo-in to be manning first base on Opening Day for the Dodgers.

Baseball is a deeply stat-driven sport, but it’s still not played on paper.

If it was, the Dodgers would already be hoisting the Commissioner’s Trophy.

NEXT: Albert Pujols Discusses His Mindset for the 2022 Season

Eric Eulau

Born and raised in Ventura, not "Ven-CH-ura", California. Favorite Dodger Stadium food is the old school chocolate malt with the wooden spoon. Host of the Dodgers Nation 3 Up, 3 Down Podcast.

9 Comments

  1. Over the course of 162 obviously they will have a high WAR, but in postseason play they don’t play fundamental baseball, I’ve been watching old highlights of champions who won like that and I couldn’t picture the dodgers in a million years ever doing that, it’s almost like they think they’re too good for it

    1. Exactly, Don. On MLBN, the 1988 WS Champs won being fundamental sound in the PS with not nearly a talented roster as they’ve had recently. But as Kirk says, the Drrrrrr factor and the very suspect in game management has a lot to do with it.

      1. Roberts lowers chances for sure. They may be able to win in the postseason from time to time their style if they didn’t have a manager who throws multiple games away per series

    1. Could be a lie but either way it’s not working. I guess we’ll finally know if Roberts is ever gone and the same exact things happen or don’t happen

  2. muncys career may be over thanks to roberts thought processes. we have no guarantees he’ll return at all. i wouldnt count on it . well at least he secured a multimillion dollar fortune before he went down. the dodgers are going to be under a microscope like theyre in court on a capital one murder charge the longer roberts is around after all the careers he threatened and possibly destroyed . muncy scherzer pollock losing millions as a free agent because of a wrongful steal attempt in pittsburg causing a hamstring injury. j.t.’s hamstring injury. i wouldnt have let betts play last year with his hip injury either. not after he signed that big contract and he was in the first year of it. they had him going full speed around the bases early in the season. thats a great way to ensure defeat in the postseason. thats not how you play major league baseball at all. and the whole team missed that fact. which indicates the dodgers need to beef up on their baseball intelligence a whole lot more. it seems like theyre asleep at the helm by their results year in and year out. they ignore useful data and disregard the results of their outcomes on the field and player costs that fail to produce. as evidenced by the billions being flushed down the drain with little to no return every year. well over a billion anyway during the last 8 or 9 seasons. and no full season world series. theyre not going to win one either unless they change their thought processes to a higher post season winning percentage. now we have to start monitering the new players to see what kind of freaks are coming up. like theres something going on with rios. i havent quite figured it out yet. ive got my feelers out on the whole team. i can sense them. whenever the major leagues is ready to step up to my level i’ll be waiting for their arrival.

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